[Imperial Historian]

Apsalar's list seemed to be of shadow's opponents, all fairly petty, with only one worthy of her skills ie Pearl. Now the interesting thing is that both QB and Kalam guessed that Pearl was Apsalars eventual target, and even encouraged her in this, so there must be some fairly obvious reason...

So how is Pearl a threat to shadow... well for one he's one of the claw's top dogs, he is loyal to the empress, and he has a link to Lostara one of the agents of Shadow... any of these could be a reason for his assasination. The odd thing is in DhG and HoC, shadow seemed to be if anything helping Pearl, they sent the demon apt to kill the semk god and then there were multiple occasions when cotilllion showed a greta deal of interest in Pearl and Lostara's journey... possibly it is the knowledge that Pearl gained from this journey ie the fate of felsin which made him a target... if ST didn't want Lasseen to know and hence have a tool to manipulate Tavore, killing Pearl to stop him giving this knowledge to the empress could be plausible. Otherwise he might just be a competent servant of Lasseen tehre enemy who they deemed it necessary to eliminate.

[Tiger_sword]

Not to mention isolating her even more

[vrai]

It might be possible that Pearl could be turned against the Empire (Rel & Dom) while Kalam could not. His weakness seems evident and, as such, the Empire weakens.

Note that this implies that the real reason(s) have not been revealed, that the real reason will be forthcoming.

Of course that does nothing to extend this thread.

[Monoch Ochem]

@ Tiger Sword: serves her right, the malicious snake! It's called comeuppance....to think she'd sanction genocide (the Wickan pogrom) so easily....

Anyway, I buy the argument that ST are trying to isolate Laseen and bring her back to the level she really is. Topper's disappeared and that could very well be connected to his disappearance. The way could have been prepared for Kalam this way.

Incidentally, ST's assassinations began some time ago...recall the azalan demons in those diamonds? The ones that shattered and they were released, bound by a geas to do certain things (can't recall if it was DG or HoC)? Who were the targets then?

[tiam]

Monoch Ochem said:

@ Tiger Sword: serves her right, the malicious snake! It's called comeuppance....to think she'd sanction genocide (the Wickan pogrom) so easily....

Anyway, I buy the argument that ST are trying to isolate Laseen and bring her back to the level she really is. Topper's disappeared and that could very well be connected to his disappearance. The way could have been prepared for Kalam this way.

Incidentally, ST's assassinations began some time ago...recall the azalan demons in those diamonds? The ones that shattered and they were released, bound by a geas to do certain things (can't recall if it was DG or HoC)? Who were the targets then?

there were no intentional targets if i recall. in HOC it it was just the magical geas attached to each diamond. kalam blew as hard as he could in a panic from the deragoth. and thereofre unleashed the azalan demons that he had purchased his long knives with. i assume because they were in numerous locations it was to show the merchant had traded them on.

[Ellestra]

T said:

I thought that Apsalar's initial goal for the Shadow was killing Pearl (though I'm not sure why), but the protection of Kalam was part of her own desires rather then Shadowthrone's, but I doubt he would of minded.

Yep.
Pearl was her target anyway. He just gave her personal reason for it. She revenged Kalam by killing Pearl with his own poison.

tiam said:

there were no intentional targets if i recall. in HOC it it was just the magical geas attached to each diamond. kalam blew as hard as he could in a panic from the deragoth. and thereofre unleashed the azalan demons that he had purchased his long knives with. i assume because they were in numerous locations it was to show the merchant had traded them on.

People who got diamonds were extra fun for azalans.
But they still had their targets. Kalam just released them bit prematurely.

[tiam]

did they? i thought he was to deliver them to Pust thats why he takes them from kalam. but kalam spends some on the way and these are traded on by the merchant. they could have targets now that they have been released but i thought that passage about the azalan escaping was bit of unneccessary info incase we (members) go ' i wonder where the other azalans went?'. A pointless bit of tying up i thought tho i havnt read the passage in ages

[Imperial Historian]

I think the plan was the diamonds are distrubuted as widely as possible throughout Seven Cities, then when they are released they kill Shadowthrones targets near them, diamonds being portable wealth would travel around in the chaos, and teh azalan demons would have an easier job finding their targets.

[Dolorous Menhir]

So...who were the Azalan targets again?

[Dravon]

Pearl died because he was the last one that Laseen could depend on and now Laseen is alone and without any help. Why ST wanted that i dont know maybe it was just revenge but im guessing it is more complex then that.

[Dark Mac]

ST could also be responsible for the disappearance of Topper, which would correlate well with his desire to see Pearl dead. He's known to hang out in the Imperial Warren and collect assassins, so it would make sense if all the missions were related.

[Blend]

To this day I'm not convinced that Shadowthrone and Cotillion have it out for Laseen. I still think that everything is going according to a big master plan (albeit a bit strenuously at times - i.e. Protecting the First Throne) that they devised while residing in the Deadhouse. I think that they killed Pearl because Pearl doesn't have any loyalties besides to himself. Throughout the entire series, we always hear his inner monologues, his thoughts. He goes along with things as long as they follow his desires, his wants. He does not even follow the Empress' orders, in the end. Because his loyalties are so dubious, he could not be trusted in the grand scheme of ST and Cot's plan, so they had him eliminated.

[Abyss]

I figured Pearl had to die because he was still loyal to Laseen and the Claw, and ST/Cot needed to eliminate any links between Tavore's army and Laseen for whatever is coming next.

It seemed pretty clear Pearl was not trusted, and, just speculation on my part, but it seems he could have chosen to throw in with Tavore and decided not to, which ensured he was on the target list.

Pearl was ambitious and self-centred, and aside from Lostara, really quite tied to the Claw (he was Topper's lieutenant, and as it turned out, his successor, albeit briefly). Had he not thought Lostara died at Yghatan, he may not have made that final choice to side with Laseen, but Apsalar may have got him anyways.

- Abyss, was sorry to see him die, but satisfied with the storyline.

[tiam]

actually i dont think that Pearl was loyal to the empress. ive just finished a reread and at the end Pearl talks about how tonight he must choose beetween the empire and the empress in regards to her being decieved by rel and dom.

[Illuyankas]

Indeed, Pearl believes he is acting in the best interests of the Empire - unfortunately, he doesn't have all the facts that Tavore and Laseen have about Rel's hidden master, so he's working against the 'good guys'.